St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-06-08


council. Uncle Johnny was serving his,
second term as alderman when he died,
his son, Dick, present clerk of courts, /.
being appointed by the council to fill
the vacancy. This gave Dick his first :
push into politics, and his record since /.
has been almost as good as his father IS,
Three tall, Strapplng sons were raised
to manhood at the O'Connor hearthstone,
each of whom has developed wonderful
faculties i'll his particular bent. The
namesake of his father, John O'Connor,
has made good record as chief of de-
tectives of this city, and Dan, the tallest,
OF the three, has practiced his scent i'll
the detective line until he has become
indispensable to justice.
Jere Mccarthy, now dead couple of
years, jumped into prominence as local
boss about war times" He was,
rather under sized, but he had the wilP
| OF dozen ordinary men, and if h0f
couldn't get what he wanted by the.
usual tactics, he would fight his way,
through. He made more noise than Uncl&
Johnny, but both men possessed the.
same quality Of never give up. In early
| years he was the central figure of Da-t
kota county, and was the sachem and
oracle of his day. He served on the Da{
kOta county board, and in 1875 he occu-;
| pied seat in the state house of repre-
Sentatives as a colleague of Ignatius Dom;
nelly and Nicholas McGree. AS,
soon as West st. Paul was taken into
the city he became an alderman. and he5
| served three terms. Old settlers of
West st. Paul, ROsemount, Lakeville,
Mendoza and Hastings easily recall the
aggressive Jere. In business he was a.
| contractor.
About 1859 two heavy set men, with
sandy hair and boards, and florid faces!
began to appear at the polls. They werei
among the first Irish settlers of the cityi
for, at that time, the French predomin-!
ated. One was
''HoNEsT TONI GRACE,
and the other his brother, John. a jour-I
neyman stone mason, who died threei
| years ago. The parish of Gowran, Kilt
kenny county, Ireland, was their native
place. They bid it last goodbye I'M
1851. Honest Tom served in the city,
council, school board, and county board,1
deputy sheriff under Sheriff d. A Rob-
ertson: John Grace was deputy underj
Robertson for six years, and then SCI
cured the shrievalty, which he held six
years longer.
| Among the early French manipula-,
tors was Joseph Robert, brother of
Louis. He died about year ago at,
Sarondelet, st; Louis, where sixty years
| before he was born. His blood was the
purest French. In 1916 he removed to<
| the Northwest, and for a number of
| years was an Indian trader in the Red
River valley, sometimes going as far{
north as Winnipeg. He took part int
the organization of this city, and served
as an alderman for two terms. At New
Ulm,, in 1862. he served with distinctions.
| Speaking Sioux and Chippewa with
| great f1uency he was greatly respected
among the Indians, with whom he hads
| immense business interests, and he was
on his way up from Washington, where3
he had been to secure certain rights oni
Mile Laos and White Earth reserva-
lions, when death carried him off,
Speaking of Indians reminds one of
| Col. Bill Shelly, and who is there that
Merchants hotel?-indeed he had'
! become as much of a landmark as
! the Merchants itself. He was shortA
of stature, tolerably big in eireamfer-
ence, and never once was known to Josef
his temper. and only once, it is said, did,
he get in hurry. That was in 1921
when the Sioux outbreak occurred.5
Sol" Shelly was at Redwood Falls att
the time, and has the distinction of
being the first to bring the news to StS
Paul, making a distance of $50 miles
IN TwENTY-FoUR HOURS
by relays.of horses. On the same night
that he arrived in this city Gov. RamseM
ordered out troops. Col. Shelly was.
once an army sutler and was strong,
Republican He was well-posted
man politically, and as he became ac-
quainted with the tactics of his partyN
his honest soul couldn't bear it any<
longer, and now they tell piece of fc-
ton about his conversion. Bill was
working actively at the court house pre-
cinct in the Bloody Second and fell
out with some of the local ringleaders.
la of hon 1r,Ir
listic proclivities upon Bills PEACEFUL
face. The Sol" was observed soon
afterward, sitting down, and absorbed
in deep meditation.
"Why, Bill" asked friend, whats
the matter?"
80, nothing" was the sorrowfuI
reply: but this is rather rough way
OF Initiating man into the DEM
Ocracy."
He hailed from New York and was
carpenter by trade. Through the infiu-
ence of Judge Kidder, of Dakota, ssCol.n
Shelly was appointed dOorkeepero of the
national house of representatives about
seven years ago. His demise occurred
at Washington last year, and the cpl
taph of
A quiet life well intended
Peace and politics strangely blended.
has been pathetically engraved upon
the tablets of city's memory.
Combining politics with physic, the
late DR.. Jacob ii. Stewart, became an
idol of popularity. He was mayor of
st. Paul, member of congress, defeating
Judge McNair in 1876, survey
succeeding Gen. j. III. Baker, postmaS-|
ter, and when Lincoln called out the
First Minnesota, Dr.. Stewart became it's
major and surgeon. In the war he be-
came so devoted to attending the wounds
of his soldiers. in one particular in
stance, that he refused to leave the field
although warned of approaching dam
ger, and the COnfederateS walked off
with future congressman
FOR THEIR PRISONER.
His career was an honorable one from
his advent into the Northwest, in 1855.
DR.. Stewart was born in Connecticut in
1929. He represented this county in
both branches of the legislature.
Among these disconnected reminisr
cenceS Col. Alvaren Allen, of the Mer-,
chants hotel, must not be forgotten. He.
was so popular that the First wardi
wheeled every time in the direction his ;
little finger pointed, and the huStlers Of
those days were wont to wind up their
councils with the remark: "Let's go
and ask Col. Allen about it, Old set
tiers know him as senior partner of the
old Allen 4 Chase stage line; and hiR<
occupation of the old boss tavern until
this year will not soon be forgotten. 1t
was about 1913 when he first put in an
appearance. When he was president of
the council he made most radical
speech on Ordinance No. 10, and that
day recorded his political suicide.
Mike Cummings, once chief of police,
whose stamping ground was in the
Bloody Second ward, was political
hustler He was q very green looLino